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essential's columbia

Hi, it's raining here in San Diego, how about where you are? Here are some photos of things I've made in the last couple of weeks. Last weekend, we had our neighbors over for dominoes, and I made a king cake. They're from New Orleans (pre-Katrina), so I thought I'd bake the traditional Mardi Gras cake and see how close it got to the real thing. They said, 'yep, that's it'. I thought it came out rather dry, but I guess that's why you dump a box or so of powdered sugar icing on it. The recipe I used is here.

This weekend, I finally made Essential's Columbia, which so many people here have done. I read lots of the previous posts to glean all the helpful hints first. This was a real lesson in letting the dough get ready in its own sweet time. Almost five hours fermenting, and about four hours in the brotforms (my Xmas presents!). I came upon a method to help getting the loaves out of the forms when they're sticking a bit. I put parchment on top of the brotform, then the peel on top of that, and quickly flipped it over. Then I tapped briskly on the bottom of the basket several times to loosen the dough. It really helped.

The flavor of this bread is wonderful! Just enough whole wheat and rye to deepen it...very satisfying, and pretty too.

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